The Christ of Advent

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Open your Bibles with me, turn to the Gospel of John, go to chapter 1 and verse 1.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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He was in the beginning with God.
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All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
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In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
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The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
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Our Father and our God, we come to you now in Jesus' name.
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We thank you and we praise you that you have given this opportunity to us yet again, another year to celebrate, another year to be reminded of the coming of Christ in the manger, and that He will come again.
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We thank you, Lord, that you have given us the Word of God.
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You have given us the Scripture, and you have given us Christ, who is the Word made flesh.
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Lord, as we examine this text tonight, and we are reminded of its wonderful truth, I pray first and foremost that you would keep me from error, as I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error.
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And Lord, for the sake of your people, and for the sake of your great name, and for the sake of my frail conscience, I pray that you would keep me from error.
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And Lord, if there be those tonight who have come who know not Christ, Lord, that tonight would be to them a night of reckoning, Lord, where they would see themselves as needing what only Christ can provide, and that is salvation from sin.
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Lord, before we can understand the need of salvation, we must first understand and reckon ourselves as sinners.
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Lord, thank you for sending your Son to save sinners.
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In Christ's name, Amen.
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One of my favorite stories to tell at this time of year is the story of St.
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Nicholas.
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Now, most of you, when you hear about St.
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Nicholas, are probably most familiar with the character we know as Santa Claus.
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And yet, St.
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Nicholas has a history.
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He lived in the fourth century.
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He was the bishop of Myra, and legend says that he was at the council of Nicaea.
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Now, some question that legend, and so I will be the first to say that I don't know for certain if he was at the council of Nicaea, but I want to share with you the legend anyway, because it makes a good point.
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Legend says that St.
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Nicholas of Myra, who was known for his great generosity, his great love for people, and his great philanthropic and humanitarian exploits, was also a sincere churchman who loved the scriptures and who loved the truth of God, especially the doctrines of Christ.
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And when he went to the council of Nicaea, there was a man there who was proclaiming that Christ was not truly divine.
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His name was Arius.
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Arius was the one who was really the instigator of the entire event.
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Arius said Jesus is not divine.
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He is but a created being.
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Arius believed Jesus was not truly and fully God, but that he was in fact, truly and fully man.
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St.
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Nicholas, who legend says was short and pudgy, walked over to Arius during the proceedings and slapped him in the face.
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Now, again, this is legend.
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But why? Why would St.
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Nicholas, he who was known as being so philanthropic, so much a lover of people, why would he walk over and strike Arius? Well, again, legend says that he was so offended by someone who would dare to question the divinity of Christ that he wasn't trying to attack him, but he was, as it were, trying to slap him back to his senses.
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How could you say Christ be not divine? Why would you come to such an obtuse and heretical conclusion? And he felt the only way to get him back to his senses was a hard strike upon the brow.
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Well, again, I don't know if all of that's true, but I do know this.
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We have come to a place in a time today where men care not about the truths of God and are much willing to throw hands over things that don't matter.
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They're much more willing to get upset about sports teams and.
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Their latest superhero or maybe even just familial squabbles.
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But they're no longer willing to take stands for truth.
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We live in an age where people have begun to wonder if truth even exists.
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Is there such a thing as truth? And is it really something for which we should take strong and bold stances? Well, I've come to you tonight to tell you the answer is yes.
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Yeah, there is truth worth fighting for.
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Now, I'm not telling you go slap folks.
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I'm not telling you to go throw hands with the local heretics.
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But and this is a hard.
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But we ought to be able to stand for the truth when the time comes.
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But the only way to stand for the truth is to know the truth.
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The only way to really know that we're standing on the right side is to know the word of God.
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If we remain ignorant of the word of God, we will never know if we're standing on the right side of history.
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You've heard that recently, haven't you? Oh, this person is going to go down on the wrong side of history because they take the wrong position on the latest social issue.
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This person is going to become on the wrong side of history because they take the least popular position on the latest social cause.
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Might I tell you tonight, it doesn't matter on which side of history you fall if you fall on the wrong side of Christ.
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The Bible says there be only two sides, the side that is the broad way that leads to destruction.
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And the side that is the narrow way which leads to life and the narrow way, my friends, is the way that trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ in his fullness.
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It follows after him in his fullness.
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It seeks to know him in his fullness.
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Now, why do I keep saying the fullness? Because I am convinced that so many people today who call themselves Christians do not have a full understanding of Christ.
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But they have been satisfied with a very shallow understanding of who Christ is.
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They've been satisfied with a very minimal understanding.
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And I hear all the time people ask me, what's the least someone has to know to be saved? And I say, why would we even ask that question unless we're convinced that we are to major in the minimal? No, we are to seek Christ in his fullness, not in the minimalist, but the most.
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I know the heart of the question.
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When somebody asks that, they want to know if somebody who's only heard the name of Christ and they haven't heard all about his divinity and his and his work of atonement, if they can know Christ just a little bit and be saved.
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I tell you this.
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Yes, someone can know only a little of Christ and still be saved because he's the same Christ.
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But I will tell you this.
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If you have been in Christ for a year, two years, five years, 10 years, you have no excuse for knowing only a little of Christ.
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You have no excuse for not understanding the things of God.
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I've never met a person who says I've been golfing for 20 years and I still don't know how to swing the putter.
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I've never met a person who says I've worked on cars for 20 years and I still don't know where to put the gas.
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But I have met people who say I have been in Christ for 20 years and I still don't know the rudimentary facts about my savior.
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What shame it is.
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What shame it is to not be seekers of Christ, to not be followers of him, to not want to know more of our savior.
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Beloved, this word is given to you free.
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You have the word of God in your own language that you can read every day.
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How often do you read it? Do you cherish the gift that has been given to you, that has been paid for in the blood of men who have died to give it to you? Do you understand the value of the word of God? I want to share with you just this few verses, and I'm going to give I'm going to make the outline very short tonight.
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I want to give you just these these three opening verses in John 1 and tell you a few things about Christ that you must know.
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The first thing, Jesus Christ is God in flesh.
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It says in John 1, in the beginning was the word, the word is John's way of speaking of Jesus.
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He is the word.
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We know this because verse 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.
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Glory is the only son from the father, full of grace and truth.
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We we need not wonder who the word is.
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John tells us who the word is.
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It is Jesus.
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And it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God.
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You say, how could he be God if he's with God? Because of the doctrine of the Trinity, God is one being that he exists in three persons and the son can be with the father and at the same time share the nature of the father.
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So we see he was with God and he was God.
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So Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
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The second thing, look at verse two, it says he was in the beginning with God.
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Know this.
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Jesus Christ did not come on the scene in Bethlehem.
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Yes, we celebrate Christmas.
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We celebrate the birth of the babe of Bethlehem.
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But what we're actually celebrating is the incarnation of God in the flesh.
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The God who has always been became a man.
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He didn't simply arrive, he has always been.
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And when the Bible says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, it could just as easily say in the beginning, the Trinity created the heavens and the earth for God, the father and God, the son and God, the Holy Spirit were all active in the creation of our world.
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Amen.
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And then in verse three, it tells us all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made.
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It's like John just begging you to understand this, isn't it? It's like he can't let you get past his prologue without understanding.
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Jesus is God.
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He has been since the beginning and before the beginning and everything in the universe was made through him.
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Jesus Christ is not just your savior.
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He is your creator.
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People say, why should we worship a carpenter from Bethlehem? Because that carpenter created the world.
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That's right.
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Amen, because he who was born of the Virgin.
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Created the very molecules that made up that virgin that made up his father and mother on earth that made up the ground they walked on.
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Think of the song we just heard when you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God.
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This is who we celebrate at Christmas.
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It's not just a fanciful story about a strange birth in a far off place that was took place in a manger, a lowly stall.
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Yes, all of those things are important, but that's not the point.
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The point is that God became a man.
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And God became a man to save men.
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As God, he could not die.
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And as man alone, he could not save, but as the God man, he could come and die as a savior.
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And that's what he did.
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I love that Brother Mike earlier this morning pointed out the fact that we have the manger in the shadow of the cross.
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Jesus came in the manger, but he didn't remain a baby, he lived and he ministered 33 years, he lived a perfect life, he never once sinned and fought word or deed so that when he was going to the cross, he was not being punished for his own sins, he was being punished for the sins of those who would believe on him.
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Amen.
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I want to draw to a conclusion by looking at one more verse in John one, open your Bible again and look at verse 11.
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Speaking of Jesus, it says this, he came to his own and his own people did not receive him.
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Now that's referring to the Jewish people.
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He came as the savior first to the Jews, but the Jews did not receive him.
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But notice what it says.
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But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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If you've come here tonight and you know, not Christ, let me tell you what you need more than anything else in all the world.
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You need to be born of God.
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Amen.
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Jesus said in his own words, unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven.
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Have you been born again? How would you know? You have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and your life has been changed.
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If you've never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, I would encourage you to do that tonight, I would encourage you to fall on your knees and cry out to the Lord for salvation.
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But I know this, no man will come to the Lord unless the Lord first opened his heart.
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So I want to pray for all of us now that the Lord would open our heart if we have not yet come to come to him today.
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Let us pray.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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Your word tells us that no one can come to you unless the Father in heaven draws him.
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So, Lord, we pray tonight that you would draw men and women to yourself, that you would save them by your grace and that you would grant them repentance, which leads to life.
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That we would see lives changed, that we would see men and women repent of their sins and trust in the Savior, that we would see the Lord Jesus Christ be high and lifted up.
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We pray all of this in Jesus name.
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Amen.
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Amen.